23 August 2013

last (5 minute friday)

Joining with
the writing flash mob that is Five Minute Friday at the home of the lovelyLisa Jo Baker. #FMFparty

Five minutes onlast

One of the perks of being a clergy family especially when
working in a small church is that wedding invites tend to come around quite
frequently. And the opportunity to share
each part of the a happy couple’s day.

This perk has something of a double edge when it comes to
the seating plan for the wedding breakfast because the clergy family are
usually quite far removed in the pecking order from immediate family. Sometimes you are planned to be sat beside
the people that the family are never quite sure who to put them next to (and
yes I own up here, sorry Rev Pete that’s what we did at our wedding to you and
your lovely wife.)

This was another one such wedding. We were seated on the
periphery of the plan with our youngish children. Whilst waiting (as you do at
weddings in general) our kids had cleaned out the favour bags and were getting high on e-numbers.

The buffet had been organised by an Auntie who was enthusiastic
but had little catering knowledge. So most
of the food was snarfed by strapping young men at the front of the queue, close
relatives of the groom and you’ve guessed it, by the time the last got to the table there were
essentially crumbs left. The bride was truly mortified for a while...

But that said, it made it a memorable day for different
reasons and as if the tale of the reception itself were not enough, one of the
children had to vomit in a hurry on the way home in the car (pay back for super
speedy ingestion of sugar earlier.) The nearest vessel to hand was the box that
had earlier carried the bridal party’s corsages (yep clergy tidy up after
wedding services too!)

Thankfully real Grace comes in equal measure no matter where
we are in the queue.